Sonnet 130 by Shakespeare

Here, Shakespeare is saying that my lady is a normal person. He is creating an antithetical poem. The ladies in other poems have a high profile; they attract attention, but here he is talking about a lady with a low profile because she is just like everybody, but it does not make her usual. The addressee is the dark lady.

In the first lines, he talks as if he is deploring the existence of the dark lady. The speaker gives a response to the conventional idea of how a lady should be. The descriptions tell us that she is ugly according to the speaker, but then he adds the volta: not ugly, just a normal person; there is beauty in her appearance. She is rare. He is playing with Petrarchan conventions and standards of beauty. He says my lady is not like the other lady in poems, but that does not make her ugly. She is not a goddess but beautiful. Callaghan says this poem is in the anti-petracan tradition.

The modern English translation of the poem is as follows:

My mistress's eyes are nothing like the sun;

Coral is far redder than the red of her lips;

If snow is white, then her breasts are a dull brown;

If hairs are wires, black wires grow on her head;

I have seen Damask roses, red and white,

But I do not see the color of roses in her cheeks;

And some perfumes are more delightful

Than the breath that reeks out of my mistress.

I love to hear her speak, but I also know that

That music has a much more pleasing sound.

I admit that I never saw a goddess walking,

My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.

But, by heaven, I think my love as rare

As any other woman misrepresented by false comparisons.